Bad show....

[bass element]

today was the schools talent show. me and two other friends had planned to play in it about a month ago but we had found out that all the slots were taken so we had stopped practicing, but the drummer was still going to play with another band for the show.

today i find out that i am playing in the talent show. i am completely unprepared. i had to call my dad to get my guitar, and i had to use the other bassists amp. also, i havent played the song in over 3 weeks. keep in mind that the drummer wasnt that good to begin with. i always had to help him with the breakdowns and beats in the song.

anyways, i didnt want to let them down so i agreed to play, despite my gut feeling that it was going to turn out bad...which it did.

all my friends were rooting for me when the whole skool started to pile in. i knew that it was going to suck because the drummer was gunna mess it up. we had about 5 minutes to practice before show time so i had to remember everything that i had made up about a month ago for this one freakin song.

we start playing, and right away it starts bad. the drummer misses the start beat to go into the heavier part of the song and the guitarist is doind crap that we hadnt practiced even the month before. since they were doin wierd things it made me get off beat and made me look stupid. this got me so nervous that my fingers locked up and i couldnt move them like normal, so i couldnt play as well. the drummer even messed up on parts of the other bands songs that he was playin with. but for some reason his friends think hes awesome... anyways, they played songs like "scotty doesn't know" and the rock version of "crazy train" and the rap version of it as "lets go". so they played all covers and we played one original song. i think this obviously made the crowd like them better because they knew the songs they were playing as opposed to ours. if we had had a better drummer, we could have played so many more songs.

when it was finally over, everyone clapped but i knew it sucked. it made me like a sucky musician and was extremely embarrassing. i felt bad that all the teachers who were musicians that i respect had to see me suck and i feel like they will not think as highly of me as before. same thing goes for my musician friends. i think i may have lost my repuatation as a good musician. some kids were honest and said it was bad but tried to consol me. others put on the "no it wasnt bad, it was really good" mode.

all in all, im really embarassed and pissed. i know that if i had been more prepared and was notified ahead of time, like at least the day before, i would have played soooo much better. and i think that if i tell all my friends and teachers the reasons why we sucked so bad, it will seem like i am just trying to make up excuses.

sorry for such a long post, but i feel so bad.

 

[bill h]

Sorry for the lame show, Remember that only you and your "band" know how it is suppose to sound. We are are own worst critics you know. Don't put so much into it, let it ride. Someone say' "you guys rocked" just say back "thanks" and change the subject. It is not near as bad as you think. And rember that music is for fun.

 

[invader3k]

Yeah...one important thing to remember is that most of the people in the crowd wish they could be like you, and be playing in a band on stage. One bad show isn't going to ruin your reputation. You're just in school, you have many years to get better and play more shows.

 

[Chad Michael]

Your next gig will not be so bad, I promise.

 

[bass element]

man, i'm really appreciating all this support. seriously, thanx guys.
well, people are at least saying that i looked hott on stage hahaha. i just really wish that i could have played up to my potential. i am not a bad bassist by any means, and everyone i have met says that i am awesome for my age and playing time (i hope that that doesnt sound cocky or conceted in any way cause im definately not like that at all).

i think that theres another school show coming up in a month or something, so im hoping to redeem myself with this next one. hopefully, ill have a new group and better songs and preparation. its my senior year in high school and i wanna leave a good impression, despite the hatred of some of the faculty (most of which love me lol).

anyways, thanx again for the support.

 

[Brandt Scanlan]

Oh man, I have had a few good (not really) times playing in various bands at my high school. We always had monitors set up for the jazz band, so it was easy to stay together in the auditorium for jazz shows. When one of my bands came to play at the senior talent show, there were no monitors. There was no PA. It was bad. It was so poorly planned that I can actually remember having to run through school looking for extension cords while the act ahead of me was going on. When we started playing, it was just a jumble of noise. I couldn't hear myself or anyone clearly. So I was quite glad to be finished. The next few times I played the auditorium I at least knew that it would sound awful. Just remember that most people really can't tell how things are going, and they won't think less of you for a less-than-stellar performance on occasion. Besides, you probably learned a few things.

 

[tyoder]

I agree with others that you probably didn't sound as bad as you think. But for your own sake, think this way - you got your bad show out of the way. Everyone has to expect a bad song/performance/gig will occur sometime. Your's is behind you. Move forward, be gracious, be resolute. You learn a lot from this experience.

 

[IvanMike]

eh, no biggie.
for fun me and my pals listen to tapes we made of ourselves 20 years ago. Some of them are...

shake it off, learn from the experience. and hey, no one ever said i looked hot on stage........

 

[Joe P]

Haaa-hhhha... You're crackin' me up element!

Tyoder's right; that's the thing; you got it out of the way. My senior year talent show performance is twenty-six years out of the way, and I've been able to laugh about it for at least the whole last half of that time now.

For our talent show (West Bend West Highschool, W.B., Wisconsin USA, 1979) there were no rock bands allowed, but the rules (that were just made up for each year) said that country bands WERE allowed (dinks). My band and I decided to crash the show by saying we were a country band, but really playing Free Bird - which starts out a little country-ish, right??

Well we spread this huge 'rumor' about our plan to beat the system or whatever, and the event had a good part of it's audience turnout because of this coup against the establishment or whatever... Eesch.

Our three-piece band had practiced to the max, but at the last minute we decided to include this kind-of new guy who we thought was just the hottest undiscovered talent around - he had long hair and really looked like a rocker, played a cool Les Paul copy through a pretty loud and good-sounding Crate amp, and could rip off impressive licks when we heared him wanking solo once (after that I could look back and see that he was just playing strings of disjointed random licks and whatnot - we really needed to have practiced as a BAND. I dont' know what I was thinking). What turned out happening was all song arrangement was out-the-window because he just kept 'soloing' pretty much through the whole song, which really through us off.

But that all's not the worst part. Here's the totally worst part: In all the hustle and stress and excitement We didn't tune our instruments properly!!!!! we never did a sound check, or played a little warm-up ditty or even strummed a chord quietly together as a 'sanity check' before the curtains opened for the show (remember that back in those days guys didn't usually have tuners - you were supposed to all painstakingly TUNE-UP to each other). As soon as we went just a couple chord changes, I knew I was in trouble - I had to sing LEAD VOCAL, we had NO MONITORS, and our instruments were horrendously OUT OF TUNE! Ohhhh, Man - I could'a died.

I guess the 'success' was that it was discovered that we were indeed a renagade ROCK band looking to undermine the rule of law, and the judges sent their goons out to cut the power to the stage, and close the curtains on us. A lot of the crowd who wouldn't have attended, except that they were supporting this 'fight for the right to rock' conspracy, were cheering us and booing the organizers (You think anyone can convince me that all the 'boos' weren't for the teachers, and all the cheers weren't for us? Ya, right.)

My playing experiences got only better after that. I'm pretty sure to say that'll be the case for you too, if you TUNE YOUR INSTRUMENTS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh - some practical advice here: Always be gracious to anyone who compliments you or gives you words of support. I mean at least say (with complete honesty, I hope!) "Thanks for your support". Only say "we sucked" to very close friends, in private. That's important.

..And as for that next talent show: Start NOW making sure that you absolutely SLAY THEM, Man. ..And get a different drummer.

Why don't you try to find some old pro around your area to be your band's coach or 'manager' for just that one show. It'll work - just get the names of a few of the hot, established local bands; I'll bet that if you contacted just a few, one musician from one of them would take the job. Man - that would be a dream to me to be able to 'redeem myself' in my mind, and take some young group that was like us, just drill-seargent'em through only the one or two or three songs for the show for a month or more before the show; work with it in detail, including stage movement and positioning - maybe even speaking parts and 'crowd interaction' scripted-out. ...And WIN the show. Oh yeah.

Joe

 

[bass element]

Haaa-hhhha... You're crackin' me up element!

Tyoder's right; that's the thing; you got it out of the way. My senior year talent show performance is twenty-six years out of the way, and I've been able to laugh about it for at least the whole last half of that time now.

For our talent show (West Bend West Highschool, W.B., Wisconsin USA, 1979) there were no rock bands allowed, but the rules (that were just made up for each year) said that country bands WERE allowed (dinks). My band and I decided to crash the show by saying we were a country band, but really playing Free Bird - which starts out a little country-ish, right??

Well we spread this huge 'rumor' about our plan to beat the system or whatever, and the event had a good part of it's audience turnout because of this coup against the establishment or whatever... Eesch.

Our three-piece band had practiced to the max, but at the last minute we decided to include this kind-of new guy who we thought was just the hottest undiscovered talent around - he had long hair and really looked like a rocker, played a cool Les Paul copy through a pretty loud and good-sounding Crate amp, and could rip off impressive licks when we heared him wanking solo once (after that I could look back and see that he was just playing strings of disjointed random licks and whatnot - we really needed to have practiced as a BAND. I dont' know what I was thinking). What turned out happening was all song arrangement was out-the-window because he just kept 'soloing' pretty much through the whole song, which really through us off.

But that all's not the worst part. Here's the totally worst part: In all the hustle and stress and excitement We didn't tune our instruments properly!!!!! we never did a sound check, or played a little warm-up ditty or even strummed a chord quietly together as a 'sanity check' before the curtains opened for the show (remember that back in those days guys didn't usually have tuners - you were supposed to all painstakingly TUNE-UP to each other). As soon as we went just a couple chord changes, I knew I was in trouble - I had to sing LEAD VOCAL, we had NO MONITORS, and our instruments were horrendously OUT OF TUNE! Ohhhh, Man - I could'a died.

I guess the 'success' was that it was discovered that we were indeed a renagade ROCK band looking to undermine the rule of law, and the judges sent their goons out to cut the power to the stage, and close the curtains on us. A lot of the crowd who wouldn't have attended, except that they were supporting this 'fight for the right to rock' conspracy, were cheering us and booing the organizers (You think anyone can convince me that all the 'boos' weren't for the teachers, and all the cheers weren't for us? Ya, right.)

My playing experiences got only better after that. I'm pretty sure to say that'll be the case for you too, if you TUNE YOUR INSTRUMENTS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh - some practical advice here: Always be gracious to anyone who compliments you or gives you words of support. I mean at least say (with complete honesty, I hope!) "Thanks for your support". Only say "we sucked" to very close friends, in private. That's important.

..And as for that next talent show: Start NOW making sure that you absolutely SLAY THEM, Man. ..And get a different drummer.

Why don't you try to find some old pro around your area to be your band's coach or 'manager' for just that one show. It'll work - just get the names of a few of the hot, established local bands; I'll bet that if you contacted just a few, one musician from one of them would take the job. Man - that would be a dream to me to be able to 'redeem myself' in my mind, and take some young group that was like us, just drill-seargent'em through only the one or two or three songs for the show for a month or more before the show; work with it in detail, including stage movement and positioning - maybe even speaking parts and 'crowd interaction' scripted-out. ...And WIN the show. Oh yeah.

Joe

thanx Joe, i really appreciate you and everyone taking the time to reply to this post. especially you for such a long and sincere one.

i definately have learned alot looking back, and i take all of your comments to heart and reflected on them. i am very thankful to those who said "good Job" or wutever to me and only told close friends that i was sad about the performance.

but yes, i am definately looking forward to redeeming myself with an all new line-up. i think will take your advice on getting a coach, so to speek. i think thats a really good idea and i know i could learn a ton from it.

anyways, thanks to everyone for sharing their like-wise embarrassing performances. it seriously did help!

 

[Guiseppe]

Yeah...one important thing to remember is that most of the people in the crowd wish they could be like you, and be playing in a band on stage. One bad show isn't going to ruin your reputation. You're just in school, you have many years to get better and play more shows.

And just think in 5-10 years when your friends will see you playing and say "D***! I remember when you first started!"

 

[Nadav]

Haaa-hhhha... You're crackin' me up element!

Tyoder's right; that's the thing; you got it out of the way. My senior year talent show performance is twenty-six years out of the way, and I've been able to laugh about it for at least the whole last half of that time now.
Bla bla bla
Joe

Hah, great story

Interesting thread.

 

[fatbassjazzer]

A few months ago my band played at the school talent show. Man, that was the most akward feeling of my life. To start, our drummer didn't come in until about 3 minutes into the song(soft intro to heavy riff). So the intro dragged on forever and on top of that I forgot all of my lyrics. But the thing that made it very akward...
we are a death metal band. So there are 45 year old people drooling and watching us that are just confused and then there are the cheerleader girls who came to watch Johnny throw his football.
at the time, I hated it. But now I find it quite funny.

 

[Rockgurl]

Everybody has sucky shows. I had some killer shows over the last few weeks, and then unexpectedly I had a sucky one. We were all tired from touring and working and it was a lame crowd...it happens. It didn't matter because the very next show after that was awesome, so sometimes you just can't have any control over it. Put it down to experience. It teaches you what matters and what doesn't. Keep practising so that you're always prepared. I've been playing for years and yet I still practise before every show. I'm paranoid that I'll forget things (with a set list of over 70 songs that can happen, believe me) so I keep playing things through, especially songs I haven't played for a few weeks. You were taken by surprise but you rose to the challenge and still did the gig. That's more important than getting the chords right. Feel the fear and do it anyway, and each time you'll be braver.